Following the conference earlier this week, Kirsty Weakley reflects on some of the main themes emerging from Manchester.

The two most notable points from this year’s conference were about who wasn’t there - the cancellation of an event organised by the Muslim Charities Forum and Acevo and the absence of the minister for civil society from any of the discussions about charity policy.

Attitude to Muslim charities

Without a doubt the last minute cancellation of a discussion on the contribution of Muslim charities dominated the conference for those in the voluntary sector, with the rescheduled event, which took place outside of the secure zone packed with the great and the good from charities keen to demonstrate solidarity.

As Sir Stephen Bubb said it sends a "worrying message" to a section of the sector that was trying to engage in discussions.

In my view the most worrying part of the whole incident was not the cancellation in the first place - although that was pretty bad - but the refusal of the Conservative Party to engage with the sector about it afterwards.

We have still not had a response to multiple requests for comment, and the Conservatives appear unlikely to publicly apologise for how it was handled or acknowledge that Human Appeal International and the MCF do not have any proven link to terrorist activity.

This says a lot about the level of respect the Party has for the sector and the sector press.

Has anyone seen the minister?

Conference marks Rob Wilson’s anniversary as minister for civil society, and you would think this would be a perfect opportunity to reflect on what he has learned and explain his party’s vision for the sector over the coming Parliament.

There were plenty of opportunities for him to do this. On Sunday the Charities Aid Foundation held a discussion based on the results for a survey of the sector, and on Tuesday morning Acevo hosted a breakfast discussion about the role of charities and social enterprises.

Margot James MP attended the Acevo event where she didn’t appear to realise that the minister for civil society role still existed, let alone who it was, noting that “there used to be Nick Hurd, who was very good”.

She also expressed an appropriate level of shock at the cancellation of the of the Muslim charities event and promised to try to find some answers from her Party – something that the sector should reasonably have expected Wilson to take on.

A scroll through his Twitter page reveals that he did attend on event hosted by a charity, The NCS Trust, the charity that was set up deliver the National Citizen Service Programme and that he dropped by the exhibition stands of a number of charities.

Some strange ideas about charities…

We already know the sector has an image problem, and that was underlined in some of the comments, from both the panellists and the audience at an Institute for Economic Affairs panel about whether the state should be funding pressure groups.

It’s no secret that some in the Conservative Party are deeply suspicious of the voluntary sector being full of Marxist hippies. But it was worrying to hear one of the commentators suggest that those politely applauding Sir Stuart Etherington’s presentation putting the case in favour of charities who take public money being able to campaign, (as they had the other three speakers who all held the opposing view, not exactly balanced) were aligned with the protesters outside calling everyone ‘Tory scum’ as they entered the conference centre.

… But also some cause for hope

Justine Greening, International Development Secretary, spoke intelligently about international aid charities an evening reception hosted by the One Campaign. She thanked the voluntary sector for keeping the issue of the millennium development goals on the table and holding politicians to account and effectively forcing them to come to an agreement.

In a similar vein George Osborne, attended an evening reception hosted by Conservative Home and Save the Children, where he praised the contribution the sector makes to the economy.

And a the Acevo breakfast, Colin Bloom, outreach director for the Conservatives, said the party wanted to be a “friend” to the voluntary sector and urged charities to hold on to their “visions”.

He also said that he had had some success with running speed dating events between charities and MPs.

Verdict

Unfortunately the negative aspects of the Conference dominated the coverage, which only goes to show that sector still has a big job to do explaining itself.